Give up your prejudices - Don't kill a mockingbird. Review on To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen ? Albert Einstein

''The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the cooperation or consent of his deliberate reason''. - Bertrand Russell

INTRODUCTION

Prejudices are a common gesticulation of humanity. Like the great quote by Einstein, a person?s character completely evolves by the time he/she is eighteen. Prejudices are direct result of people?s acceptance of common sense. How common-sensical people are depends upon their conformist wisdom. This means they have to be very learned and pious to be void of any prejudices. Many people have the prejudicious mindset mainly due to their lack of knowledge and wisdom.

All they go by is their own false beliefs and thoughts induced by the larger crowd, as no one has patience to research the truth. As long as the humanity is around, the prejudices will prevail and it is up to people to get convinced and be educated. On a side note, one should accept that we indeed see prejudicial trend of some members seen in this site also. H.D Thoreau stunningly mentioned in his great work Walden that it is never late to give up our prejudices. If prejudices are given up, the world will be a nice place.

TKAMB is a great piece of literature focusing on prejudices. Let me delve on to the review.

PLOT

The story revolves around a small town in Alabama in the early 1930s, Maycomb, Alabama. The Southern States of US was heavily influenced by racial prejudices and was known for the injustices done to the blacks, during early 20th century . Atticus Finch is a great lawyer and an exceptional father of two. The story being narrated by a tomboyish daughter Scout and her elder brother is Jem. Jem takes Scout of his adventurous outings around the town.

The main part of the story revolves around the trial of a black man accused of raping a white girl - Tom Robinson. You see the racial prejudices in Maycomb and ignorance through the eyes of Scout, Jem and Dill (A boy staying at his Aunt?s).You also see another beautiful sub story involving love care and trust surrounding a man who has locked himself up, Boo Radley. All these characters are intertwined in one of the best books I have loved so far.

For the benefit of the readers, I shall stop with this.

ANALYSIS

The book is all about a great story telling through the eyes of a young child with all purity and innocence intact. As the kids do not know about many facets of life at an early stage, Lee recollects the hypocrisy, compassion, empathy, trust and love surrounding a story focusing mainly on racism. Lee has done an outstanding job in making this book look so vivid that one will rush to last page as if their life is under threat. I sincerely mean that.

I became so engrossed with this book. Atticus Finch is a role model of a person and a man ahead of his times. This characterization was brilliant and Lee?s characterization of Scout based on her own experiences is absolutely marvelous. One of the intriguing component is that of Boo Radley. Lee does all these characters so beautifully. Harper Lee wrote the screenplay for the popular movie also.

Another fact to love this book is the fact it was released in 1958. It was a time the entire south was reeling in racial tension. As one can see in Forrest Gump, Univ OF Alabama was desecrated in the mid 60?s. hence TKAMB was some kind of a path breaking novel setting an osmosis of culture.

Some fine points of this book are

~ The statement by Atticus to the Jury mentioning the story of Mockingbirds

?I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house; and that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard. But he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted - if I could hit 'em; but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. Well, I reckon because mockingbirds don't do anything but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat people's gardens, don't nest in the corncrib, they don't do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us?

~ Another intriguing piece of prose detailing the ignorance of people is when Scout goes to the first grade knowing how to read and write and when the teacher says ?Now you tell your father not to teach you anymore. It's best to begin reading with a fresh mind. You tell him I'll take over from here and try to undo the damage.''

~ Another fine point is when Scout?s brother Jem tells her ? four kinds of folks in the world. There's the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there's the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Noes?. This mentions how children are heavily influenced by what they see and hear.

~ Atticus?s love for his kids is shown beautifully also.

~ The entire Boo Radley episode is beautiful

CONCLUSION

I can go on and on and on about this book for it has so many finer points. Prejudice is a universal phenomenon and will exist till the end of mankind. What is needed is a change in the mindset of people and a sense of acceptance after being informed. If we are all half-learned, we will never accept something new, contrary to our beliefs. Only fools do such things. When our judgement's are weak, the prejudices are stronger. But the sad fact is that education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices!. Le-e has given an exceptional piece of literature for us to digress. This one has to be chewed, repeatedly.

Read it NOW. 10 stars to this book

I hope you liked this review. Do Comment, if time permits.

KALIL

''I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can't be any worse.'' ? Mark Twain

''I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.'' - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln